What we’re hearing on Penn State, Clark Lea, Lane Kiffin and more entering CFB’s Week 10 – The Athletic

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Now that Matt Rhule has signed a contract extension to remain with Nebraska and the most obvious candidate for Penn State’s head coach vacancy is off the board, the other options for Nittany Lions athletic director Pat Kraft could be trickier to spot.

Rhule and Kraft are close friends from their days working together at Temple. Rhule is also a Penn Stater, having walked on to Joe Paterno’s team after going to high school in State College.

With such strong ties to both the school and the AD, Rhule was naturally the first name to come up when James Franklin was fired on Oct. 12.

While there is no guarantee Kraft seeks out other candidates he has worked with before, some within the industry have flagged two possibilities: Duke head coach Manny Diaz and Syracuse head coach Fran Brown, though neither is having the type of season that screams for a big promotion.

Kraft has hired Diaz as a head coach before, though he never coached a game at Temple: Diaz left to become Miami’s coach shortly after being named Geoff Collins’ replacement.

There are no lingering hard feelings between the two, and later Diaz did work under Kraft as defensive coordinator for two successful seasons at Penn State.

Diaz’s three seasons as Miami coach went OK (21-15), though it should be noted the school’s level of investment has soared since replacing him with Mario Cristobal, a former national champion as a player with the Hurricanes.

Diaz left Penn State for Duke when Mike Elko left for Texas A&M, and he has done a solid job keeping a good thing going at a place where that’s far from a given. The Blue Devils are 13-7 under Diaz and 4-3 this season with pricey portal addition Darian Mensah at quarterback.

Brown is a former assistant at Temple under Rhule (and Kraft) and a New Jersey native with recruiting ties that would absolutely appeal to Penn State. The problem is the Orange have fallen off hard after winning 10 games in Brown’s first season. Syracuse is 3-5, having lost four straight since a win over Clemson in which the Orange lost quarterback Steve Angeli to a season-ending injury.

Brown might have a bright future as a head coach, but a blue blood hiring him coming off a season that fails to even reach a bowl game could be a tough sell.

So then what for Penn State?

Kraft tried to hire Mike Elko, a New Jersey native who went to Penn, when Kraft was Temple’s AD. That’ll be a lot tougher now that Elko has Texas A&M looking like one of the best teams in the country. Coaches who know Elko say he loves the SEC and doubt he would leave — but maybe he’ll be the next to leverage the Penn State opening for a contract extension.

While Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin appears to be the No. 1 target in the SEC for both Florida and LSU, the Penn State opening appears to be more of a mystery now, with speculation in the industry circling around Louisville’s Jeff Brohm and Vanderbilt’s Clark Lea.

Vandy looking to lock down Lea

Vanderbilt athletic director Candice Storey Lee believes the Commodores football program is just getting started after reaching the top 10 and beating ranked teams in consecutive weeks under coach Clark Lea.

“It’s a great, fun milestone along the way to a journey that for us we haven’t even scratched the surface on yet,” Lee told The Athletic this week. “So I say all that to say we need to keep doing what we’re doing, and that’s investing. You always have to make sure that you have the right leader to execute the vision. I think we have great leadership in our chancellor. I obviously believe in myself and my vision for this department, and I think we have the right leader in Clark Lea.

“I’m glad that other people see what we see, that’s flattering. It is my objective to continue investing and supporting the great leader that we have in Clark Lea so that we can keep building something special here. That’s the objective.”

Lee certainly seems ready to lock down Lea. In fact, there was a board meeting at Vanderbilt last week leading up to Saturday’s visit from ESPN’s “College GameDay” and the Commodores’ 17-10 victory against Missouri.

It’s a good time to ask people for money at Vanderbilt.

Lea has a 23-34 record in five seasons at Vanderbilt, but context is everything. Lea came to his alma mater, the SEC’s perennial doormat, with a plan for scouting and development that was upended when transfer rules loosened and name, image and likeness compensation became part of college sports in 2021.

Lea adjusted, and his rebuild took off last year after importing the braintrust (head coach Jerry Kill and offensive coordinator Tim Beck) and quarterback (Diego Pavia) from New Mexico State.

Add in the fact that Lea’s agent is Jimmy Sexton, who has never met leverage he didn’t try to exploit, and Lea is one of the most intriguing potential candidates in a hiring cycle that already has eight open Power 4 jobs.

Many who know Lea believe he is not itching to leave Vanderbilt and will be tough to pull from his hometown. Whether Lee and the school convince Lea to follow Rhule and Indiana’s Curt Cignetti and remove himself from the carousel by agreeing to a new deal in the next few weeks is something many in the industry are watching closely.

“It would be the most un-Jimmy (Sexton) thing ever,” an industry source said.

Next stop for the Lane Train?

Kiffin has emerged as the centerpiece of the coaching carousel, but the issue of timing is going to be talked about a lot with him as well as some other potential candidates whose teams are in College Football Playoff contention.

The No. 7 Rebels (7-1) are in great position to make the CFP for the first time. The 50-year-old Kiffin, the former Tennessee, USC and FAU coach, is the prime target for Florida, according to industry sources, and is expected to draw interest at LSU now, too.

He is also happy with things in Oxford, with his extended family having settled in there. Three years ago, Kiffin turned down Auburn to stay at Ole Miss. That has looked like a wise move.

The Ole Miss job has gotten better and better the more he and the school have invested into it. Ole Miss has one of the best collective setups in college football.

Is it a better job than Florida or LSU? Five years ago, that wasn’t even a real question, but now, given all the uncertainty around LSU — the governor just appointed the school’s board in charge of the coaching search as athletic director Scott Woodward was shown the door — it’s a fair question.

On top of that, there’s this: With LSU and Florida set to eat big coaching buyouts from loaded contracts, it’s quite possible that both schools look to put forth more restrictive deals for their next football hire, given all the outrage about contract length and guarantees — especially at LSU, which is still working on a separation agreement with Kelly, who is owed $53 million. Gov. Jeff Landry decried one-sided coach contracts in public appearances this week.

Ole Miss might be more willing to open the vault for Kiffin, who is on his way to a fourth double-digit-win season, which would tie the school record held by the legendary Johnny Vaught.

The new contracts of Cignetti and Rhule might feel a bit more like outliers since Indiana and Nebraska had been struggling for so long, an industry source told The Athletic this week.

“For them they may think that the juice is still worth the squeeze,” the source said. “Those schools couldn’t afford to lose Cig and Rhule.”

Around the country

• Industry sources tell us an SEC head coach with an explosive offense is intriguing some ADs looking for a new coach. Well, besides Lane Kiffin and Missouri’s Eli Drinkwitz. That’s Josh Heupel, the 47-year-old Tennessee head coach who has done a terrific job in dragging the Vols out of the ditch they were in for a decade-plus. Under Heupel, Tennessee went to the Playoff last year and has finished in the top 10 in two of the last three seasons after going 20 years without being there.
• Another coach whose name is circulating around the carousel is Minnesota’s P.J. Fleck, who is 63-42 in nine years. Fleck has only one double-digit-victory season at the school, but his .600 winning percentage is better than any Gophers coach since 1950.
• Former Wisconsin coach Paul Chryst could be back running an FBS program soon. We’ve heard the 59-year-old former Badgers quarterback has emerged as a strong candidate for the Oregon State vacancy, according to industry sources. Chryst went 67-26 in Madison before getting fired after a 2-3 start in 2022. He has had two different stints in Corvallis as the Beavers offensive coordinator and is close with former Oregon State coach Mike Riley. Oregon State fired Trent Bray earlier in October after going 5-14 in a year and a half. The Beavers are 1-7 this season, but there is hope once the program settles into the newly reconstructed Pac-12 it could be one of the better-funded teams in the league.
• A Group of 5 coach probably not getting enough attention for a possible upgrade is Charles Huff of Southern Miss. In his debut season in Hattiesburg, Miss., Huff has the Golden Eagles 6-2 and in contention for a Sun Belt title. The 42-year-old former Penn State and Alabama assistant coached Marshall to a 10-3 season and a Sun Belt championship last year but left after his relationship with the school’s leadership went south and they did not offer him a new contract.
• It does not appear to be a robust market for assistant coaches hoping to get a head coaching job. ADs seem to be looking for head-coaching experience as they navigate larger staffs and more complicated roster management responsibilities. The hottest name in the coordinator ranks right now, industry sources tell us, is Texas A&M offensive coordinator Collin Klein, the 36-year-old former Kansas State quarterback and 2012 Heisman Trophy finalist. The No. 3 Aggies are averaging 6.69 yards per play (22nd in the FBS) and quarterback Marcel Reed has emerged as a Heisman Trophy candidate himself. Klein would be a natural fit to take over at his alma mater after Chris Klieman retires. But Klieman is 58, so that might be a ways off. Klein could get a shot sooner than that at Arkansas or Oklahoma State.
• First job off the board? It might be Virginia Tech, as the Hokies have interest in James Franklin, but the former Penn State coach might not want to sign on before he sees whether Florida State or Auburn — or both — come open.